Thanks Maggie. It’s been a short night!! Looks like we were right about the individual not knowing unless Paaahk eee Stan now has multiple sea coasts
3m ago
Daniel Hurst, in Canberra, reports that different expectations about the search have been created by the Australian prime minister and defence minister:
The Australian prime minister, Tony Abbott, who revealed the satellite image analysis earlier today, has reaffirmed his belief that it could be a major breakthrough in the search for missing flight MH370.
“We don’t know what that satellite saw until we can get a much better, much closer look at it but this is the first tangible breakthrough in what up till now has been an utterly baffling mystery,” Abbott said upon his arrival in Papua New Guinea on a trade mission.
But the Australian defence minister, David Johnston, appeared more circumspect, pointing out that searchers had looked in various different places since the Malaysia Airlines plane went missing on 8 March.
“Expectations will obviously be built. I want to say that let’s just be patient and try and find out what this satellite reference is,” Johnston told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in an interview on Thursday night local time.
“It [the southern Indian Ocean] is an extraordinarily remote part of the world ... This is a very difficult logistical problem. We’re several days away, I think, from really having an idea of the credibility and veracity of this report.”
Asked if he thought it was the best lead in the search so far, Johnston said “there’s been several ‘best leads’ along the way”.